List - If a man's occupation is given as Hairworker what is their job? Baltimore Maryland, 1890 Thank you, Lisa llepore@juno.com

> I recently inherited an old photo album with pictures and documents > glued onto the pages. I've tried steam, etc., to get them off, but > with no luck! I can see some writing on the back of the photos, > which will identify some ancestors. Does anyone have ideas on how I > can get these items off the pages? > > Lorraine <Landmoffat@aol.com> I had an old victorian scrapebook with pictures and advertising cards glued to the crumbly pages. I sprayed them with water (mist) and let them lay awhile. Most of them came up okay. Might have to mist more than once. Neva "John & Neva Brigham" <neva@cwis.net>

On Fri. 23 May, 2003 5:44 PM, "Richard A. Pence" wrote: > "Donna Hrynkiw" <Donna.Hrynkiw@kwantlen.ca> wrote: > > > The land description is Secn 1 - Rg 73W - Twp 129N - 5P.M. Terrific! Thank-you Richard. You've given me several new avenues for investigation. > Note that the state line between North and South Dakota is on the > border between Range 128 North and 129 North Could you tell me how you inferred this? Or is it something you just knew from growing up in the area? Just for Richard's benefit: The information you sent gave me several confirmations that I'm in the right neighbourhood (no pun intended) with my research. "Joseph Lutz" appeared on your list as one of the homesteaders and is the name of one of the brothers I'm investigating (although it appears there were several Joseph LUTZ's in the Dakotas in this period. I'm trying to determine which one belongs to 'my' LUTZ family), and the family is indeed German from Russia. >Regards, >Richard A. Pence, Fairfax, VA 22030 >Pence Family History <http://www.pipeline.com/~richardpence/ Donna Researching (in this case) the brothers Felix LUTZ (b. 1870), Josef LUTZ (b. unknown), and Franz LUTZ (b. 1880), who all lived or owned land in or near North and South Dakota between about 1890 and 1910. Donna.Hrynkiw@kwantlen.ca I'm out of my mind, but feel free to leave a message...

> I recently inherited an old photo album with pictures and documents > glued onto the pages. I've tried steam, etc., to get them off, but > with no luck! I can see some writing on the back of the photos, > which will identify some ancestors. Does anyone have ideas on how I > can get these items off the pages? > > Lorraine <Landmoffat@aol.com> Kind of depends on HOW old the pictures are and when they were glued down. Try one of these and then the other, in whichever order seems least "dangerous" to you. Both require EXTREME patience and copious amounts of time for miniscule progress over a lengthy period. Both DO work, eventually. Put the album in the deep-freeze for several weeks to several months. The idea is to make the glue freeze/expand enough to chip off when you try to lift a photo. To lift the photo, you want a PLASTIC spatula or a PLASTIC stick with a sharp edge. When the page and the photo are good'n'cold, see if you can slide the sharp edge of the plastic between the photo and the paper. Retreat; try again; retreat. If the page or the photo reaches room temperature, return to freezer for a few hours before trying again. Or -- if you don't care about preserving the album itself -- heat your oven to 250 TURN OFF THE HEAT! and place the album inside; when the oven has cooled to room-temp, remove album, re-heat over, turn off heat, return album. (Process intends to DRY OUT the glue, so it will chip and crack off). Use that same thin-edged plastic implement as above. SOME people feel this damages the photograph and they're probably right, but so does leaving it glued down to a 1940s-era sheet of paper with mucilage. Once you've taken the bother of either process though, don't be surprised to find such useful inscriptions as "Chris' babies" or "Dan's great-grandmother." If anyone in MY family ever wrote "John Jacob Jingleheimer, with wife Dora on left, mother Sally on right, and (left to right) George, James, and Mary-Alice; taken at Sally's home --1312 Main Street, Tupelo, KS -- at 2pm Sunday March 25 1902" on a photo, I've never found the photo. (g) Cheryl singhals@erols.com

> I recently inherited an old photo album with pictures and documents > glued onto the pages. I've tried steam, etc., to get them off, but > with no luck! I can see some writing on the back of the photos, > which will identify some ancestors. Does anyone have ideas on how I > can get these items off the pages? > > Lorraine <Landmoffat@aol.com> They sell some at craft supply stores called, "Un-Do". It removes the photos and papers from the pages without damaging them. If you have an "A.C.Moore" or "Michael's" craft supply store nearby, they will carry that product. People who do scrapbooks use this item with good results. Margie "Margie" <margie92@earthlink.net>

Kdberr1@aol.com wrote: >I'm researching ROBERT H. BALDWIN of Mason County, KY. The reason >I'm tracing Robert is to find two slaves he owned. But the Census >info for 1860 I found in Heritage Quest is just not in synch with >other info I have -- yes, I have Robert marrying a Sallie T. >Metcalfe in 1844 in Kentucky, but the 1860 Census says he was 37 >years old and from Misssissippi: Have found a Robert Baldwin, deputy >sheriff, with wife Sallie T., wife, son John M. Also in household: >John P. Metcalfe, age 65, Harriett Metcalfe, age 28, Amanda >Metcalfe, age 33. > >I thought Baldwin was from Fayette Co., KY I found a Robert Baldwin >there who migrated to Mason Co. in 1844. What am I to make of this >Census info -- so many of the names are matching up (particularly >his wife, and the fact that they live in Mason Co.) that I don't >want to dump them..... What do listers think -- should I keep >looking for more info on Baldwin to narrow down exactly the right >slave owner???? Or should I accept this person? BTW: Robert H. >Baldwin died around 1863 and I do have his will. I'm not sure I understand your problem. It is clear to me that the 1860 census record you cite is for the Robert Baldwin who married Sallie T. Metcalfe in KY. Keep in mind that census records are notoriously a bit "off" so this Robert Baldwin may not have been born in MS. Maybe only Amanda and Harriet were home when the census taker came, and they had no clue where their (brother-in-law?) was born. Conversely, how certain is your source that he was born in Fayette Co., KY (maybe he was born in MS and moved to Fayette Co. as a child?). Does the will make any reference to slaves? Have you found this Robert Baldwin in the 1850 census? Do you have evidence that in fact there were two Robert Baldwin's in Mason Co. KY in this time period? Or are you saying you're unsure whether the locality you need is actually Mason Co. KY? Though I have no experience in slave research, it is not unusual for me to find more references to slaves in deed books than in wills when I'm researching my southern ancestors or their neighbors. (And if there were two Robert Baldwins in the same locality, deed research is essential to sorting them out). I often find tax lists to be more helpful than census records (mostly because when they exist...as they usually do in KY and VA...they tend to be for every year, not every 10 years). Both the deed books and tax lists covering the time period you need for Mason Co. KY have been microfilmed by the Family History Library in Salt Lake. Odds are, there is a Family History Center within reasonable driving distance of your home. You can order these films from Salt Lake to view in your nearest Family History Center for a small fee. To find what they have available on microfilm, and where Family History Centers are located, go to: http://www.familysearch.org Connie Sheets clsheets1@prodigy.net

> And, even though not perfect, > the HQ indexes are reputed to be the most accurate. > > "Richard A. Pence" <richardpence@pipeline.com> I also find the HQ images to be MUCH faster-loading and easy to scroll around than Ancestry's various (IMHO) painful image-viewing apparatuses. However, as far as I can tell, HQ does not use Soundex or any other form of "fuzzy" searching. One has to search on every possible spelling variant, which can be time-consuming, and even then you can miss some wacky new misreading of a name. Also, as may have been mentioned before, HQ indexes only one instance of each surname in each household. So sometimes I do my initial search on Ancestry, get the roll#, page, etc, then flip over to HQ's "Search by page number" to get their easy-to-use (and easy-to-copy) image. Ingrid Giffin ilglists@earthlink.net

> I recently inherited an old photo album with pictures and documents > glued onto the pages. I've tried steam, etc., to get them off, but > with no luck! I can see some writing on the back of the photos, > which will identify some ancestors. Does anyone have ideas on how I > can get these items off the pages? > > Lorraine <Landmoffat@aol.com> Lorraine - Call the nearest large Library/University/Museum and ask if they can give you a referral to an archivist or the company they use to repair their own documents. You may be able to melt the glue from behind - with an iron - but if these are photos that can't be replaced, it isn't a job to do at home. I would also scan or photograph these photos now in case they are damaged further by trying to remove the backing. Lisa llepore@juno.com

>The VA spokesman could >not tell me if pensions were paid to any Confederate widows and did >state that the woman who is said to be the last surviving >Confederate widow is not receiving a pension. He said he didn't >know why, but presumed it was because she had remarried since her >veteran husband died (but that doesn't mesh with the info you give). > >"Ain't this pension stuff fun!" <g> > >"Richard A. Pence" <richardpence@pipeline.com> Richard, I guess I owe you an apology. In the interests of saving bandwidth I only printed a small part of what was on the Internet. Here's the entire article: By David Lamb | National Correspondent Posted February 9, 2003 ENTERPRISE, Ala. -- A friend of Alberta Martin's came calling the other day to give the 96-year-old widow news of a death. She awaited him at the nursing home in her wheelchair, wearing red beads and her best dress, a Confederate flag spread over her lap. She nibbled on cheese puffs. "Miz Alberta," said the friend, Ken Chancey. "You remember the Yankee widow you met some years back? Gertrude Janeway? Well, she died last week. You're all America's got left now. You're the last surviving widow of a Civil War soldier. Do you understand what I'm saying?" The woman nodded but said nothing. Gertrude Janeway, 93, whose husband fought for the Union, had died in the Tennessee log cabin where she had lived most of her life. Now, 138 years after the war ended and 45 years after the death of its last veteran, there is only Alberta Martin, frail and forgetful, the last widow of the 3.2 million men who fought America's bloodiest war. "Mr. Martin -- that's what I always called him, Mr. Martin -- never did talk much about the war," she recalled. "Except he'd tell me how cold and wet it was up in Richmond, how he'd wrap blankets around himself in the trenches and how when he crossed a field he'd dig up potatoes and eat them raw because he was so hungry." Miz Alberta, abandoned by the taxi driver she had married as a teenager, was 21 when, in 1927, she became the third wife of William Jasper Martin, an 81-year-old former private in the Confederate army. Their courtship was brief, spanning just a few words spoken over a picket fence in Opp, when he'd stopped to chat on his daily amble into town to play dominoes with his war buddies. He was a handsome man with a bushy mustache, a quick temper and a $50-a-month military pension -- a princely sum in those days for a woman stalked her whole life by poverty. He was lonely, and she was needy. The couple were serenaded with cowbells and horns on their wedding night. "Love him? I don't know," she told National Public Radio in 1998. "It ain't the same love that you got for a young man, if that's what you're asking. He slept on one bed and me on the other one. People, when they get old like that, they don't require kissing and hugging and necking and one thing or another. The old saying is, 'Better to be an old man's darling than a young man's slave.'" Nonetheless, she bore him a son, Willie, which pleased Martin so much he'd strut through town with the boy on his shoulders. "My life with Mr. Martin was hard, but it was a good life, too. We were happy," she said. He died after less than five years of marriage. Eight weeks later, Alberta Martin married his grandson by a previous marriage, a union that set so many tongues wagging that the local Baptist preacher had to study the Scriptures before deciding she hadn't committed a sin. Mr. Martin died at age 87 in 1932. Shortly after his death, Mrs. Martin married Mr. Martin's grandson, Charlie Martin, making her ineligible to draw her late husband's pension. For most of her 50 years with Charlie Martin, Miz Alberta -- who had a seventh-grade education and was the daughter of sharecroppers -- lived in obscurity and poverty. When Ken Chancey -- a dentist and a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans -- found her in 1996, widowed again, she was living at the end of a dirt road in Elba, in a small house without air conditioning where she kept a portrait of Robert E. Lee, commander of the Army of Northern Virginia in which William Jasper Martin had served. "She asked for two things," said Chancey, the widow's guardian. "One, could the SCV get her recognition as the last Confederate widow? She said she'd never done anything all that important in life, but she had married into history and that history was part of the nation's. And two, could we help her get a Confederate pension? I said I'd try." In 1895, Alabama passed a 1-mill (one-tenth of a cent) tax to provide pensions for Civil War veterans and their widows who had a net worth of less than $400. By the 1940s, the fund had grown into millions of dollars and was administered by 17 people, although only a handful of eligible recipients were still alive. Alabama still collects the tax and, with no Civil War widows left except Martin, taps into the $30 million nest egg to support the state's human-resources department, the veterans' administration and a Confederate cemetery in Marbury. In 1996 Alabama agreed to renew her Confederate widow's pension and a supplement, 64 years after she became ineligible for the aid because she remarried. Mrs. Martin, who lives in a small house on the end of a dirt road in Elba, gets a monthly check of $335. The man who made her part of history is buried under a spreading cedar tree in Opp. She will be buried in another cemetery, next to his grandson, with whom she spent half a century. In planning her funeral, she has asked that "Beyond the Sunset" be sung and that the Confederate flag covering her lap the other day be draped over her mule-drawn casket. Martin has been to numerous Civil War reenactments and Confederate grave dedications. She has been a guest of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, and honored at the dedication of the Jefferson Davis Presidential Library. She has been featured in every major newspaper in America, including the front page of the New York Times and in People Magazine. Today, when asked why she married a man so much older than herself, Miz Alberta just smiles and says, "It's better to be an old man's darlin' than a young man's slave!" Martin celebrated her 96th birthday Dec. 4, and received greetings from 14 governors all over the country. Please send all cards to: Mrs. Alberta Martin C/O Dr. Ken Chancey P.O. Box 311087 Enterprise, AL 36331 ========== GOD DENIED THEM VICTORY BUT FATE GRANTED THEM A GLORIOUS IMMORTALITY -- Confederate Tombstone, Richmond, Va. ====== --Jim -- Jim Lyons jim@jimlyons.com http://www.jimlyons.com

HI: I'm researching ROBERT H. BALDWIN of Mason County, KY. The reason I'm tracing Robert is to find two slaves he owned. But the Census info for 1860 I found in Heritage Quest is just not in synch with other info I have -- yes, I have Robert marrying a Sallie T. Metcalfe in 1844 in Kentucky, but the 1860 Census says he was 37 years old and from Misssissippi: Have found a Robert Baldwin, deputy sheriff, with wife Sallie T., wife, son John M. Also in household: John P. Metcalfe, age 65, Harriett Metcalfe, age 28, Amanda Metcalfe, age 33. I thought Baldwin was from Fayette Co., KY I found a Robert Baldwin there who migrated to Mason Co. in 1844. What am I to make of this Census info -- so many of the names are matching up (particularly his wife, and the fact that they live in Mason Co.) that I don't want to dump them..... What do listers think -- should I keep looking for more info on Baldwin to narrow down exactly the right slave owner???? Or should I accept this person? BTW: Robert H. Baldwin died around 1863 and I do have his will. KBerry Kdberr1@aol.com

I recently inherited an old photo album with pictures and documents glued onto the pages. I've tried steam, etc., to get them off, but with no luck! I can see some writing on the back of the photos, which will identify some ancestors. Does anyone have ideas on how I can get these items off the pages? Lorraine Landmoffat@aol.com

Singhals wrote: > If he was a writer, not a compositor or typesetter or a pressman, > try the Texas state Press Association. I dunno if it goes back that > far or what kind of records they keep if it does, but can't hurt to > ask. Might also contact the paper in Dallas where you may find > copies of his articles, or list of them with citations, and the > citations would tell you the dates. Typographers were, I think, fairly heavily unionized. I just did a quick google search for typographer union, and it seems that the Typographer's Union eventually merged into the Communications Workers of America: http://www.cwa-union.org/ You might try writing them to see if they maintain records going back into the 1930s and 40s. -- Joe Makowiec can be reached at: http://makowiec.org/contact/?Joe Joe Makowiec <makowiec@nycap.rEMOVECAPSr.com>

G. M. Lupo wrote: > > <mlomax1074@msn.com> wrote... > : > : > I'm curious what resources exist for locating people during the > : > 1930s and 40s. > : > > : > G. M. Lupo a.k.a. matt at lupo dot com > : > : When was he born and when did he die? When did he live in Dallas? > : In Atlanta? Where was he living at the time of the 1930 census? > > This is a point of contention also. The best evidence I have > suggests he was born in February of 1901, at least, that's what's on > his headstone. His death certificate doesn't give an exact > birthdate. He died in July of 1950. He lived in Atlanta 1948-1950 > and lived and worked in Dallas immediately prior to that, but I > don't know when he went there. His obituary only states that he > came to the Atlanta Journal from the Dallas Morning News. If he was a writer, not a compositor or typesetter or a pressman, try the Texas state Press Association. I dunno if it goes back that far or what kind of records they keep if it does, but can't hurt to ask. Might also contact the paper in Dallas where you may find copies of his articles, or list of them with citations, and the citations would tell you the dates. > : Do you know your grandfather's Social Security number? You might > : want to send for a copy of his Social Security card application > : (form SS-5 > > As far as I can tell, he never had an SSN or didn't use it. I've > checked the SSDI and that's how I found his ex-wife, but he died in > 1950 and it doesn't look like SSNs were as common place at that > point as they've become. My guess is he never registered for one. Yeah, he did. Newspapers weren't among the exempt, unless they were tiny-tiny, and the Dallas papers weren't tiny-tiny. If he died in 1950, he's not on the SSDI because it started in 1962 with current deaths and they haven't had "time permits" to get to the 1950 deaths yet. Cheryl singhals@erols.com

> One thing I haven't seen mentioned and thought I would just put out > for all to see is that when you order a pension file, you may NOT > get all the documents in the file in the initial request. Large > pensions files have a card in them that indicates what is sent in > the initial response. The remaining material is usually obtained > through a second request asking for the remainder of the file, or by > having someone go to the archives and pull the file personally. > > <snip> > > "Kevin Wornell" <wornell1@attbi.com> Kevin, under current policy, the order form for pension files gives options for the full file ($37) or for a "packet" ($13.75). This is a change made in the last year or so. Prior to then, you would receive a partial packet UNLESS you specifically wrote asking for the full file. The particular fee was, I think, $10 and the full-file fee was calculated on the basis of the number of pages. Richard "Richard A. Pence" <richardpence@pipeline.com>

"Janey Joyce" <jejoyce@sbcglobal.net> wrote: > If he was employed in the 1940s and 1950s he definitely had a > Social Security number. Not true. The person in question died in 1950 and thus was working in the 1930s and 1940s, as noted in the original query. At that time only a relatively small percentage of the U.S. population was under Social Security, principally those with jobs in larger companies engaged in commerce and industry. Not covered in 1950 were self-employed persons, including farmers and farm workers, at that time still a significant portion of the population. Also not covered were government employees - local, state and federal, including everyone employed in public on. Then, as now, this was also a significantly large portion of the population. Coverage was broadened in the 1950s, but before then SS covered but a relatively small portion of the population. The chances are higher than 50-50 that a person dying in 1950 did not have SS#. However, it is still worth checking! Regards, Richard "Richard A. Pence" <richardpence@pipeline.com>

> Since the computerized SSDI starts in Oct 1962, his not being in > the SSDI is no indication that he did not have a SSN. While the entry of data did not begin until October of 1962, it appears that most of the deaths for that year were put into the database. Richard "Richard A. Pence" <richardpence@pipeline.com>

> "The last surviving Union veteran of the war [and the last living > member of the Grand Army of the Republic] was Albert Woolson of > Duluth, Minnesota, who died August 2, 1956." May 24, 2003 As an interesting aside to the above, The GAR long before had decided the organization would cease to exist with the death of its last member. And so it did with the death of Albert Woolson. But it took an additional two years to finish the paperwork and lay the organization to rest. -Jim -- Jim Lyons jim@jimlyons.com http://www.jimlyons.com

Jim, a couple of footnotes to your interesting tidbits: I was advised by a public affairs officer at the Veterans Administration in February that President Eisenhower in late 1952 granted a blanket pardon to all those who participated on the Confederate side in the Civil War. Among other things, this made Confederate soldiers and their widows eligible for Federal pensions. As you noted, the last known Confederate soldier apparently died in 1951, so none of them received a pension. The VA spokesman could not tell me if pensions were paid to any Confederate widows and did state that the woman who is said to be the last surviving Confederate widow is not receiving a pension. He said he didn't know why, but presumed it was because she had remarried since her veteran husband died (but that doesn't mesh with the info you give). Some of the stories published in January upon the death of Gertrude Grubb Janeway made me just a tad skeptical concerning the facts in the case. Essentially, her husband was born John Janeway in Tennessee and he joined an Ohio unit while it was in Tennessee, using the name John January. (Complicating matters the coincidence that there was a second man named John January in the same outfit, albeit a different company. I have the records for both and they sometimes were confused with each other - one man's discharge was, in fact, entered on the others record.) The story told is that after John Janeway / January was discharged he "went west," perhaps to California, where he raised a family. No census record for him can be found until 1920 when, already well into his 70s, he is found in 1920 in the "Old Soldiers' Home" in Leavenworth, Kansas. Severn years later (!) he returned to the area in Tennessee were he was reared and married the 18-year-old Gertrude Grubb. The home in Leavenworth has no inmate records going back to 1920 so there is no record of his release or what else may have happened to him. The VA said the pension file for him and his widow is still with the VA and I was told where to write for it - and have done so, but that was in February and still no response. As I say, I am a skeptic about these things and it just doesn't seem likely when you say that a soldier enlists in the 1860s, disappears for more than 50 years after the war, turns up in the soldiers home in 1920, then 7 years later he returns for the first time to his native county to marry an 18-year old girl. BTW, the "other" John January - this one called John W. January, enlisted from Ohio, was captured in George, sent to Andersonville where he had to amputate (himself) both of his feet to prevent the spread of infection. He was hospitalized in New York and given a medical discharge (originally mistakenly placed in the file of the Tennessee John January) and moved to Illinois where he fathered a large family, eventually moving to Dell Rapids, South Dakota. Regards, Richard "Ain't this pension stuff fun!" <g> "Richard A. Pence" <richardpence@pipeline.com>

Margie I've dealt with several funeral homes in the Washington, DC, area and their employees have been very helpful in most cases. Some furnish the information with no charge, some have a minimal charge for sending copies of their records, and others will only check their records if you pay a sometimes stiff fee up front. Also, many older funeral homes are either no longer in business or the business has been sold and the records are lodged with the funeral home that purchased the original funeral home, are with the local historical society, or as someone on a list wrote me, the records are in someone's closet or basement or even thrown away. I've found the individuals on the Rootsweb Washington DC list very helpful in furnishing information regarding funeral homes in that area. You might want to write to the lists in the area you're searching. Also I found where the records of one funeral home were located, by (as an afterthought) asking someone at a cemetery office if they knew where the records of the funeral home that buried my grandfather might be located. The funeral home had been sold twice since he was buried, but luckily they knew the name of the current one. Also check with the local historical or genealogical society - they might know. Barbara Clements Baclem5656@aol.com

"G. M. Lupo" wrote: > This is a point of contention also. The best evidence I have > suggests he was born in February of 1901, at least, that's what's on > his headstone. His death certificate doesn't give an exact > birthdate. He died in July of 1950. He lived in Atlanta 1948-1950 > and lived and worked in Dallas immediately prior to that, but I > don't know when he went there. His obituary only states that he > came to the Atlanta Journal from the Dallas Morning News. Do you know where your gf was born, at least the state? Is so look in the 1910 Census Soundex, if available, or in the 1920 Soundex. These will have his age which will may confirm the gravestone date. I don't know if it was mentioned but he would have had to register for the WW2 draft. My father born in 1900 had to. > As far as I can tell, he never had an SSN or didn't use it. I've > checked the SSDI and that's how I found his ex-wife, but he died in > 1950 and it doesn't look like SSNs were as common place at that > point as they've become. My guess is he never registered for one. If he died in 1950 he probably had a SSN. Most people who worked for a newspaper would have been covered by then. Only government, railroad and a few others were not covered by SS. Since the computerized SSDI starts in Oct 1962, his not being in the SSDI is no indication that he did not have a SSN. bob gillis bob gillis <rpgillis@bellatlantic.net>